1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an elastic long-fiber non-woven fabric, and to fabric products manufactured from the elastic long-fiber non-woven fabric. More particularly, the present invention relates to an elastic long-fiber non-woven fabric that exhibits excellent elasticity, appropriate stress upon elongation, an excellent anti-blocking property, and an excellent feel, and is suitable for application to fabric products; and to fabric products manufactured from such an elastic long-fiber non-woven fabric.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, elastic non-woven fabrics have been used for various applications, and such applications have continued to grow in number. In particular, utilizing their characteristic of fitting to the body, elastic non-woven fabrics are used, for example, for producing disposable diapers, clothing, caps, bandages, and tapes. Performance characteristics demanded of such applications include excellent elasticity, an appropriate fitting feel (appropriate stress upon elongation), an excellent anti-blocking property, and an excellent feel. For instance, although an elastic non-woven fabric manufactured from solely a polyurethane elastomer exhibits excellent elasticity, it fails to exhibit appropriate fitting, because the non-woven fabric undergoes considerable stress when stretched, thereby exerting strong constriction.
Although an elastic non-woven fabric manufactured from a styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene block copolymer (SEBS), which is a polystyrene elastomer, is known to be a recyclable elastic non-woven fabric that produces no harmful gas when incinerated, such an elastic non-woven fabric is unsatisfactory in terms of anti-blocking property and feel, because of the tackiness inherent to the resin. Although a melt-blown non-woven fabric manufactured from a resin produced by blending polypropylene with SEBS has been proposed, such a fabric is unsatisfactory in terms of feel and elasticity.
As a bulky elastic non-woven fabric exhibiting good feel, there has been proposed a fusible composite short-fiber non-woven fabric comprising a thermoplastic elastomer, and a low-melting-point fusible non-elastomer having a melting point at least 30° C. lower than the melting point of the thermoplastic elastomer. However, this short-fiber non-woven fabric fails to provide satisfactory feel and anti-blocking property, because the highly adhesive thermoplastic elastomer occupies the greatest area of the fiber surfaces. In addition, when a number of bales are stacked in an unconditioned warehouse or truck in summer weather, blocking between fibers tends to occur, raising a problem of poor workability when the non-woven fabric is unwound (refer to e.g., Patent Reference 1). There has also been proposed a melt-blown non-woven fabric comprising an elastomer material and a non-elastomer material, and partially having crimps (refer to, e.g., Patent Reference 2). Furthermore, there has been proposed a non-woven fabric comprising fibers that have surface irregularity produced by stretching, manufactured from an elastomer material, and a non-elastomer material containing a linear low-density polyethylene (refer to, e.g., Patent Reference 3). However, these non-woven fabrics require further improvement in terms of feel and anti-blocking property.    Patent Reference 1
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-31751    Patent Reference 2
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-511047    Patent Reference 3
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-522653
Problems to be Solved by the Invention
The object of the present invention is to provide an elastic long-fiber non-woven fabric that exhibits excellent elasticity, an appropriate stress upon elongation, an excellent anti-blocking property, and an excellent soft feel, and which is suitable for applications to fabric products; and to provide fabric products manufactured from such an elastic long-fiber non-woven fabric.
Means to Solve the Problems
The present inventors have carried out extensive studies in an effort to solve the above-described problems. Consequently, the inventors have found that the problems can be solved by an elastic long-fiber non-woven fabric comprising composite long fibers comprising at least a non-elastomer resin and an elastomer resin, wherein the composite long fibers have a helical structure and an irregular-surface structure; the non-elastomer resin/elastomer resin volume ratio (%) of the composite long fibers falls within a range of 30/70 to 5/95; and the fineness of the composite long fibers is 5 dtex or less; as well as fabric products manufactured from such an elastic long-fiber non-woven fabric. The present invention was attained on the basis of these findings.